About Getting Started for New Doc Team Members

Both the Product and Engineering teams at edX are currently organized around audiences: They are divided into the Learner team, the Educator team, and the Business team. Each audience has a lead on the Product team and a lead on the Engineering team. Additionally, there is an infrastructure team that covers all audiences. 

Docs is part of the Engineering team, and the documentation team works across audiences. One doc team member covers each audience, which means that the doc team member attends the standups and other meetings for that audience.

For more information about the current product and engineering organization structure, as well as information about the individual members of each team, see the Product-Engineering February 2017 Organization slide presentation.

To get started as a doc team member, read through this page and follow the instructions in each section.

Documentation Overview

Read both the following wiki pages. The first is a summary of the way the documentation team works that's intended as an introduction for other teams. The second is an internal summary of the doc team.

Tools

The documentation team uses many of the tools that developers use, as well as a number of documentation-specific tools. Install and configure the developer tools, and then install and configure the documentation tools.

Developer Tools

Review the following parts of the Developer Onboarding page, completing any associated steps. 

Step 1: Skip.

Step 2: Follow instructions for all items except "Read replica" and "Other Systems".

Step 3: Follow instructions for all items except Slack.

Step 4: Follow the steps for Git and GitHub.

Step 5: Review the following items.

    • The edX Platform (watch the first 8:00 of the video)
    • Using the Platform
    • Glossary
    • Accessibility

Documentation Tools

Read through Install and Configure Documentation Tools and install the listed tools. Contact a doc team member with any questions.

If you have a problem with equipment, or your edX account doesn't have permissions to access a site or perform tasks, go to https://employees.edx.org/support and fill out the form. (If the case is very urgent, you can e-mail it-support@edx.org.)

If you need a license for a tool, go to https://openedx.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portal/1/create/4 and fill out the form. (If the case is very urgent, you can e-mail devops-support@edx.org.)

Training courses

Work through these edx.org courses at your own pace.

  • DemoX, the edX course for learners, introduces the LMS (learning management system)
  • edX101 for course creators, faculty, and other team members introduces Studio and the LMS
  • StudioX for course creators, faculty, and other team members goes deeper into Studio
  • AC101 (on edge.edx.org), required accessibility training for all edX employees.

Plus, feel free to enroll in any courses on edx.org that interest you and click around to see how different course teams use the LMS to present text, videos, assessments, surveys, discussion topics, etc.

Websites

Review and consider bookmarking the following sites.

edX publicationshttp://docs.edx.org/
edX site

Studio (course creation) https://studio.edx.org

Sign up for an account with your edX email address. When you create a Studio account, an account is automatically created for you on the LMS (https://edx.org).


LMS (courses running): https://edx.org


Feel free to register for one or more courses so you can see what they look like. 

Insights (course data): http://insights.edx.org/


edX Edge

Studio (course creation): https://studio.edge.edx.org

Sign up for an(other) account so that you can create test courses. When you create a Studio account, an account is automatically created for you on the LMS.


LMS (courses running): https://edge.edx.org


Insights (course data): https://insights.edge.edx.org


edX Stage

https://studio.stage.edx.org

Requires a shared credential, which is kept in an IT Google Doc.

Sign up for an(other) account so that you can test the platform. When you create a Studio account, an account is automatically created for you on the LMS.

LMS (courses running): https://stage.edx.org


edX Wiki

Documentation space: Documentation Home

Engineering space: Engineering Home (edX-Internal)

Product space: Product Home (information about initiatives and leads)


JIRA

DOC project dashboard: Shows useful information such as tasks that are in progress or ready for work at a glance.

DOC project Kanban Discovery board: Shows new tasks that aren't yet in progress, including tasks that are ready for work.

DOC project Kanban Work board: Shows tasks that are currently being worked on (in progress, in review, etc.), as well as tasks that are ready for work.


GitHub

edx-platform repo: Where most of the code that makes up Studio and the LMS lives.  

edx-documentation repo: Where the edX documentation lives.


ReadTheDocs

edX dashboard: https://readthedocs.org/dashboard/

More info: Publish Documentation on Read the Docs 


Portal

The edX portals serve the edX partner and Open edX communities. There is some overlap in content.

Partners: https://partners.edx.org—Sign up for an(other) account so that you can view the info on this site.

Open edX: http://open.edx.org/


EdX Style Guide

http://draft-edx-style-guide.readthedocs.org/en/latest/